title: GLI activates transcription through a herpes simplex viral protein 16-like activation domain.
abstract: Three proteins have been identified in mammals, GLI, GLI2, and GLI3, which share a highly conserved zinc finger domain with Drosophila Cubitus interruptus and are believed to function as transcription factors in the vertebrate Sonic hedgehog-Patched signaling pathway. To understand the role GLI plays in the Sonic hedgehog-Patched pathway and mechanisms of GLI-induced transcriptional regulation, we have characterized its transcriptional regulatory properties and contributions of specific domains to transcriptional regulation. We have demonstrated that GLI activates expression of reporter constructs in HeLa cells in a concentration-dependent manner through the GLI consensus binding motif and that a GAL4 binding domain-GLI fusion protein activates reporter expression through the GAL4 DNA binding site. GLI-induced transcriptional activation requires the carboxyl-terminal amino acids 1020-1091, which includes an 18-amino acid region highly similar to the alpha-helical herpes simplex viral protein 16 activation domain, including the consensus recognition element for the human TFIID TATA box-binding protein-associated factor TAFII31 and conservation of all three amino acid residues believed to contact directly chemically complementary residues in TAFII31. The presence of this region in the GLI activation domain provides a mechanism for GLI-induced transcriptional regulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Medical School, Developmental Systems Biology, Children's Memorial Institute for Education and Research, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: C Z
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swart
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Iannaccone
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Walterhouse
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics; D035381:TATA-Binding Protein Associated Factors; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism; D035362:Transcription Factor TFIID; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071676:Zinc Finger Protein GLI1; D016335:Zinc Fingers
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D015513:Oncogene Proteins; C106849:TAF9 protein, human; D035381:TATA-Binding Protein Associated Factors; D015534:Trans-Activators; D035362:Transcription Factor TFIID; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014764:Viral Proteins; D000071676:Zinc Finger Protein GLI1; C084120:e(y)1 protein, Drosophila